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BioShock Wiki:Map Project
This project aims to coordinate the creation of high quality level maps from the BioShock game series for use in level articles. Another (currently inactive) portion of the project is an attempt to create a map of the entire city of Rapture. (For the 'Map of Rapture' portion see the collapsed section below.) Creating Level Maps Basic Overview Creating level maps is a multi-step process. Basically, it involves: #Capturing screenshots of maps in each level at the highest resolution possible. (See the Map Quality Requirements and Tips section for more information about capturing images.) #Stitching the map screenshots together in an image editing software if the map is too large for a single screenshot. #Uploading the map images to the wiki and placing them in the correct map categories. #If possible, creating an ImageMap with coordinates for each icon on the map and links to articles about the objects the icons represent. (See the Making ImageMaps section for more details.) #Placing each map image on a subpage of the level article it will be displayed in. (See the Making Subpages section.) #Displaying the maps in the appropriate level article by using the extension. (For more about using Tab view, see the Tab view Format section.) Detailed Guidelines Map Quality Requirements and Tips *When taking screenshots of a map in BioShock 2 and its DLCs, always zoom in as far as possible on each level and take as many overlapping screenshots as are needed to capture the whole map. *Do not use the 'Print screen' button to take screenshots. Instead, use the "Shot" console command to save a bmp screenshot to the same directory as your User.ini file. This will allow you to create much higher quality screenshots. *Map screenshots should include all icons which have stationary locations. This means that the screenshots should include icons for all vending machines as well as the ADAM corpse icons which can only be seen when the player is with a Little Sister. The screenshots should not include the icons for dropped Little Sisters or quest arrows, since these move around. *Once you have all the needed screenshots, piece them together in an image editing software. **For a map with multiple floors, create separate layers for each floor. Make sure that all overlapping rooms line up correctly between floors. **Make sure that the colors of the map background and rooms are consistent. When you are standing in a room in game, the color of that room will flash on the map: do not let this color change appear in the final image. **Crop the image so that there is very little extra space besides what is needed to show all rooms in all levels. *Save each layer as a separate image with a name that clearly describes the level name and floor number. As an end product, you should have high quality images of each floor which overlap perfectly and are the same dimensions. Making ImageMaps ImageMaping makes the icons on a map clickable links to pages with more information about the objects the icons represent. For a detailed explanation of creating and using ImageMaps, see the MediaWiki article about the ImageMap extension: MW:Extension:ImageMap. Various online utilities exist for making ImageMaps, and there are also ImageMap plugins for image editing software such as the GIMP. For this project, ImageMaping is especially useful to display custom maps that have added icons which show Audio Diary, Tonic, and Plasmid locations. *Each vending machine icon should link to the article about the specific type of vending machine. *Icons for ADAM corpses should link to the ADAM article. *Added icons for Audio Diaries should link to the specific Audio Diary transcript page, and the title of the link should include the name of the Audio Diary author. *Added icons for Tonics and Plasmids should link to specific Tonic or Plasmid pages. Making Subpages A map image must be placed on a subpage before it can be displayed in a main level article. For example, the map of the first level of the Adonis Luxury Resort is placed on the page Adonis Luxury Resort/L1, which is a subpage of Adonis Luxury Resort. The level number should be the same one it is labeled as in game. For example, the Adonis Luxury Resort actually contains a Level Zero. For a custom map, the word "extra" should be added to the normal subpage name. For example, a map of the first floor of Dionysus Park with added icons would be placed at Dionysus Park/L1 extra. On the subpage, the map image should be placed inside of a template using the following format: *For a plain image: *For an Imagemap version: Once the subpage is created, add it to the appropriate category. (Look at the subcategories within Category:BioShock 2 Level Maps for examples of how map categories should be organized.) Tab view Format Once all the subpages are created, the Tab view extension is used to display the maps within the level article. See for a detailed explanation about how to use the extension. #In the level article, create a "Map" section under a new heading. #Within the Map section, create a Tab view display with the following format (example from the Adonis Luxury Resort article): Adonis Luxury Resort/L0|Level Zero Orig.||true Adonis Luxury Resort/L0 extra|Level Zero Adonis Luxury Resort/L1|Level One Orig. #Always place ||true to the right of the floor that the player first appears in when the level starts. This will make it the default tab that shows when the article first loads. If many custom maps are created for a level, the number of tabs might spill over into two rows. When that happens, the tabs might need to be specially formatted with code in MediaWiki:Wikia.css. In that case, contact Gardimuer to have the changes made. Progress Report BioShock (All maps already made.) BioShock 2 The Protector Trials Minerva's Den Map of Rapture Project Participants If you are interested in contributing to this project, simply add your signature by typing “~~~” below. Place every participant on a new line. ;Inactive *Winston Hoffner *Trace Barkley ;Active *Gardimuer *EDlTOR *Pauolo *Wass12 *Mainframe98